As I was in Manchester over Easter, I visited the IWM North, the only
one of the five IWM sites I hadn't been to. It was a bit of a
disappointment. Images follow:
cc-by-sa on
everything.

(Incidentally, all photos here were taken with the Panasonic
Lumix GF1 I recently bought second-hand from a friend. It's a lovely
piece of kit, a slight upgrade over my Pentax K10D and, as you'll see,
with much better low-light performance.)

I see basically two approaches to museum design: lots of glass
cases with the actual original (whatever), or lots of buttons and
interactive video to engage people who don't know much about the
subject. I tend to feel that buttons and interactive video can be done
just as well on-line.

The IWM North takes a middle ground: there's a fair old bit of
interactive video, but they also have glass cases with artefacts
related to a particular subject (as it might be, "things soldiers make
while they're not fighting"). The overall theme is "the impact of
modern conflicts on people and society"; there's not much here from
before the Great War, and that and WWII get the most attention.

There is also abstract sculpture.

This was a 3.2-second hand-held exposure. You know, I think this image
stabilisation thing might actually work a bit.

(Though why they feel the need to keep everything in dimness is not at
all clear. Sure, some artefacts get damaged by bright lights, but the
main IWM in London is nothing like this dark.)

But in the end we didn't really feel much enthusiasm for continuing
with WWII and later; yes, it's a whole heap of Not Fun to be involved
in or affected by war, we get it, and if that's all you have to say
you don't need another hour of my time to say it to me. While there
are some interesting items here, I'd have to say this one isn't worth
the trip even if you're already in Manchester.

Ah, that's worth knowing. Have considered going there with Hairy Brother, should he ever tire of visiting Bovington on his forays south. Sounds like biting the bullet and braving London for their IWM might be a better bet.

There may be something about it I didn't get. But given a choice between the two, I'd definitely go for London. (The first time I went there as a grown-up, I saw all the vehicles and things in the main hall and thought "is that it"… and as I was about to leave found the well-concealed entrance to the basement, where all the nifty stuff in glass cases lives.)

I had a similar experience in the London IWM. Looked around a bit, about to get bored, hang on a minute I need the loo I wonder if it's down here, oh look I've found the rest of the museum, I wonder if the staff know it's down here?

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